Maslow’s pyramid: climbing towards happiness

We talk a lot about people’s quality of life and well-being. And when we analyze the path of their search, we always describe it as a personal work that each one must do for himself and for his environment,

That happiness is more an obligation than a right, We have also said it many times. Like being happy is part of the commitment that the privilege of being alive implies.

Both concepts, happiness and well-being, are not equivalent, but it is clear that they are closely linked, although the first is more subjective and the second can be measured more clearly, especially if we value the satisfaction of our personal and social needs.

Maslow’s pyramid: from basic needs to happiness

abraham maslowone of the fathers of humanist philosophy, said in his book The self-actualized man that the individual naturally has many needs and that their relationship to his existence depends on his ability to satisfy them.

This simple sentence changed the landscape of social psychology and the care work forever.

Maslow also said that all needs are important, but that the urgency to satisfy them was not the same in all. To explain it, he used an image that was as didactic as it was powerful:

The needs of individuals (and also of communities) could be prioritized by arranging them one above the other as if they were the blocks of a pyramid.

Evolution is about climbing the pyramid from the first level to the last and highest level, remembering that the second step cannot be reached without having passed the first, that is, the highest needs cannot be resolved without first dealing with those at the base.

What types of needs are there?

Maslow’s pyramid, or hierarchy of human needs, tells us poses five levels common to all human beings:

First level: basic needs

Grouped here, mainly, all the primary requirements of survival: food, water, shelter, rest, breathable air…

Second level: need for security

Related to the desire to feel that your physical and social environment is stable, orderly and predictable, It includes everything from the certainty of being able to continue satisfying basic needs in the future, to more complex situations, such as a stable job or a viable personal project.

Third level: belonging needs

They refer to the hunger that we perforce feel for be accepted by others, of being integrated into a group and the experience that is usually called “double belonging”: I belong to this group and this group belongs to me. I am part of this that somehow defines me.

Fourth level: need for appreciation and recognition

A group of needs that includes both the claim to be loved and to be valued for what we do, as well as respected for who we are. is the need approval and prestige. And, by extension, feeling competent and suitable in carrying out the chosen task.

Fifth level: need for self-actualization

What is usually described as the satisfaction of becoming all that one is capable of, of feeling comfortable with one’s own existence; the certainty of being able to do things being congruent with who we arewhat we think and what we feel.

The possibility of climbing the entire pyramid satisfying the needs of each level is related, of course, to the proper use of all the capacities and abilities with which one is born, with which one develops and with which one acquires throughout his life.

As is obvious, this process, which we can call personal growth, depends not only on those conditions that we have received from the cradle, It also depends, and above all, on our attitude.our experiences and the facts that we must face in life, including education.

Strengths and weaknesses: turn off autopilot

We all come in with more strengths than weaknesses. to adulthood, beyond establishing that there are people more fortunate than others in this development and growth (due to their economic conditions, family, school…).

It is a fact known by therapists that knowing these and those increases the power of each one and their influence on the outcome of their life path.
All of us without exception have a large number of capacities to face and be able to solve the problems that life presents us.

we are born with emulation ability of the behaviors of our educators. with a certain level intelligence and sensitivity. we come standard with the wonderful tools of intuition and creativity.

But not all of us take advantage of its potential. It is necessary to rescue, develop and sustain the capacities of each one.

In addition to learning to make them conscioussince when we use them automatically, we hardly manage to get the most out of them.

People who go through their lives on autopilot are operating at only a fraction of their potential.

If we are not aware, we repeat commands and recordings out of habit or fear, without encouraging ourselves to look for other possibilities.

The companies that promote these automated behaviors they push their members, especially the younger ones, to take the wrong path, to lose their way, to end up feeling threatened, frustrated or insecure regarding the uncertainty of tomorrow.

A pyramid for society

It must be taken into account, as we said at the beginning, that this scale of needs applies to both individuals and communities, which have and need to satisfy the same needs.

Society, without its evolution in its own pyramidthe will not be able to achieve the minimum level of satisfaction as a human group or open the door to the possibility of well-being and happiness for all its members.

As I read not long ago in a street graffiti:

“Quality is not in the things that man makes, but in the man who makes things”